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Alexei Stukov
Alexei Stukov (also spelled Alexi Stukov) is the Vice Admiral of the United Earth Directorate's Expeditionary Force. Stukov is voiced by Castulo Guerra, an actor from Argentina. Introduction His primary role involved research, especially into technology and physical theory, and more recently into the Zerg and Protoss. While a brilliant tactician, he did not contest Admiral DuGalle's leadership of the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Force to the Koprulu Sector. Stukov is 52 years old, and is a lifelong friend of Gerard DuGalle. Both were competitive in their youths and still played at getting the best of each other. He has four children. Stukov enjoys smoking and a little vodka. He is apparently from Russia. Stukov is represented in the game by the Terran Ghost unit and may indeed have been psychic. This ability may have enabled him to resist the influence of Samir Duran - assuming Duran was using psionics to manipulate people. War Action Shortly after arriving in the Koprulu Sector, Stukov and DuGalle witness a demonstration of the Zerg attacking the base of a Terran Dominion colony (probably Tyrador IX). DuGalle had released the Zerg onto an unsuspecting colony to "observe" them in warfare. Stukov was appalled, but DuGalle forced him to watch, claiming that the live demonstration would instill a resolve within the Vice Admiral that recorded dissections could not. We next see him trying to blockade Braxis when the Protoss visited, for reasons unknown to him. The Protoss were able to penetrate the blockade, and eventually Stukov had to give up the chase. Stukov returns to Braxis and orders the fleet's Captain (the player's character), newly awaken from cold sleep, to assault Braxis and take control of it's capital city of Boralis. When the UED meets the Confederate Resistance Forces, it's commander, Lieutenant Samir Duran offers his services and skills in return for amnesty. Stukov initially is resentful, but when Duran says he can show an alternate route that leads to the rear of Boralis, Stukov replies, "Very well, Lieutenant. Consider yourself and your men the first colonial conscripts of the United Earth Directorate." When a Confederate Psi Disrupter was discovered on Tarsonis, Duran convinced DuGalle of the need to destroy the device. Stukov however, believed the Disrupter to be a useful tool to the UED and sent his personal guard to relieve Duran after he had secured it. Without telling DuGalle, he had the Disrupter secretly dismantled, transported to Braxis, and reassembled. While the UED pursued James Raynor and Arcturus Mengsk to Aiur in their campaign against the Terran Dominion, Stukov became increasingly perturbed at the increasing number of allies that Mengsk was able to bring to bear against them. When a massive wave of Zerg attacked the UED just in time to allow Mengsk to escape their grasp once again, Stukov was horrified. Not only had Raynor and the Protoss joined forces with the Terran Dominion, but the seemingly mindless Zerg had done so as well. When the Vice Admiral realized that Duran had moved his forces out of place so as to allow the Zerg to pass, Stukov finally grasped that their inconspicuous ally had not only been playing them from the start, but likely had been infested by the Zerg as well. With this new revelation, Stukov immediately fled back to Braxis, where he activated the Psi Disrupter. The Traitor DuGalle was livid, especially since Duran was goading him. He ordered Duran to execute Stukov for treason against the UED, a task Duran gladly accepted. Stukov's personal forces resisted the UED, but eventually Duran located Stukov and shot him, possibly with a small pistol in the heart. In any event, Duran promptly vanished. With his dying breath, Stukov told Admiral DuGalle that Duran had been manipulating him from the beginning, was almost certainly infested by the Zerg and may have been for a long time. Stukov's last words were punctuated when the outer walls of the Psi Disrupter were breached by a massive wave of Zerg, triggering alarms and possibly setting off the Disrupter self-destruct sequence. At DuGalle's request the remainder of Stukov's personal forces assisted the UED forces in their efforts to recapture the Psi Disrupter from the Zerg. According to the ending video of Episode V, Stukov's body was launched into space, possibly near Char. This is not necessarily accurate, however, given that the video was primarily designed as UED propaganda (for example, it claimed that Stukov had died gloriously in battle against the Zerg). DuGalle took Stukov's death personally, especially because Stukov was the one who originally argued that Duran was untrustful. Impressed with Stukov's realization that the Zerg had joined forces with the Protoss and Terrans, and his taking the initiative to activate the Psi Disrupter, Kerrigan personally taunted Admiral DuGalle on Char while lauding that Stukov was "twice the man you were." Reanimation Stukov may have made a comeback, however. In the Blizzard Map of the Month called Deception, Stukov was observed, obviously infested, and working with former Confederates in a high-tech science facility. According to data acquired by the Kimeran Pirates in the facility, the Confederates were studying how to revive Terrans using Zerg reanimation techniques. In the Blizzard Map of the Month Mercenaries II, Stukov made yet another appearance. He hired mercenaries to destroy enemies of his who had conveniently settled on the same dark planet. If you play the three-player version of the map, you will notice that the white Terrans in the southwest corner have a special battlecruiser with them - the Kimeran Juggernaut. That is the name of the high-tech battlecruiser used by the Kimeran Pirates. The Kimerans were mostly or completely wiped out by Stukov's mercenaries. Stukov's most recent appearance was in Resurrection IV, a secret map in the Nintendo 64 version of StarCraft. In this mission, Artanis revealed that Zerg Cerebrate Kaloth had reanimated Stukov, who was now in charge of his own Zerg Brood on Braxis. However, Stukov was weak, which was reflected in the power of the Brood ... it had little. Even a weak brood is not to be underestimated, however, as it was able to wipe out the Terran civilians on the planet. Artanis sent James Raynor and Taldarin, a very old Protoss Dragoon, along with a small Terran force (taken from Raynor's Raiders) and a small Protoss force, down to the surface with a high-tech nanite serum which could reverse the infestation process. These nanites (or something similar) have also made appearances in Deception and StarCraft: Alternity. Stukov's forces were not completely with him, and many of them felt he had gone insane. Many of them decided to join forces with Raynor, helping him free the Protoss prisoners Stukov was keeping on Braxis. Eventually the heroes cornered Stukov and fought a heavy battle; the heroes prevailed and Stukov was injected. Freed from the Zerg (but somewhat bitter of this fact), Stukov helped the heroes to evacuate. In orbit over Braxis, the Protoss burned its surface of all life as they had previously done with Chau Sara, Mar Sara, and Antiga Prime. External Links/References *Starcraft Universe *United Earth Directorate * StarCraft homepage at Blizzard Entertainment * Battle.net StarCraft Compendium * Underwood, Peter, Chris Metzen and Bill Roper. StarCraft: Brood War (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998. * 2007-06-19. Games for Windows' StarCraft II Article: Bill Roper on Stukov in [[Resurrection IV]]. StarCraft Legacy/Games for Windows. Accessed June 20, 2007. Stukov, Vice Admiral Alexi Stukov, Vice Admiral Alexi Stukov, Infested Stukov